The present invention relates to handles for handling kitchen articles such as saucepans, braising pans or frying pans.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2 345 248 describes a kitchen article handle in which the lower face of the handle has a central concave part in the form of an arc defining a transverse housing in which four fingers may be accommodated. Accommodation is provided for the thumb on a lateral handle face. Such a handle is adapted to a grip in which the thumb is on the side of the handle. The forces required for holding the kitchen article are borne partially by the friction forces of the fingers on the side faces of the handle. The result is that holding the kitchen article requires appreciable force to produce said lateral friction, and the wrist is in an orientation which is not favorable for making tipping movements with a transverse axis.
The present invention has more particularly as an object to substantially improve the grip of the hand of the user on the kitchen article handle and to make this grip adapted to particular forces which appear between the hand of the user and the handle during movements which are imparted to the kitchen article during its normal use.
According to another object of the invention, the handle of the invention may be held in several ways, each way being adapted to a particular use of the kitchen article in a first holding position, the hand is relatively close to the kitchen article itself, so that holding accuracy is increased and the force required for carrying the kitchen article by the handle is reduced.
In a second position, the hand is spaced slightly away from the kitchen article body.
In a third position, the hand is very much removed from the kitchen article, and is thus protected from projections of food when cooking over a high heat.
In all positions of use, the hand adapts itself perfectly well to the particular shape of the handle of the invention, and this particular shape opposes the relative sliding of the handle and of the hand both in the longitudinal direction of the handle, and in the direction of axial rotation of the handle.
Furthermore, the shape of the handle of the invention is particularly well adapted to the use in which, for each of the positions of use, the user disposes his thumb longitudinally on the upper face of the handle, and his other fingers in opposition transversely under the lower face of the handle. It can be seen that the hand is thus in an optimum position for supporting and countering the forward tipping force imparted by the mass contained in the body of the kitchen article: the wrist joint is naturally disposed in an orientation making it possible to limit downward tipping of the kitchen article without muscular effort as well as making possible an appreciable angular movement of the joint to impart on the kitchen article upward tipping movements with transverse axis. The forces for holding the kitchen article are borne by the compression forces of the fingers on the upper and lower faces of the handle.